Sony Ericsson Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade dates offically unveiled

Ray and Arc S up first

Sony Ericsson has confirmed its Android 4.0 update schedule - and it's pleasingly early on in 2012.

Over on its product blog, the soon-to-be-just-Sony brand has stated that the Xperia Arc S, Xperia Neo V and Xperia Ray will all be first up to get a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich, starting in late March or early April.

Rolling out the future

According to Sony Ericsson this will be a "phased roll out over several weeks and all kits for a specific phone model will not get the upgrade at the same time" but has published a summary of what's needed to get a phone rocking a new operating system:

- It starts with public push when we as a manufacturer get access to the new Android release from Google.

- Our developers take the existing Xperia software and combine it with the new Android release.

- Once the coding is done we want to make sure the quality of the new software meets our, our partners and your expectations.

- Now we feel the new software is ready but we also need to make sure it's approved by our external partners.

- All good. We're all set to roll-out the new software. The story continues in your Xperia smartphone

It's a very clever move from Sony Ericsson to be so transparent about the Android update, as it's been heavily burned in the past by users desperate to get the next generation software on their phones.

However, this is coming from a company working hard to be among the first to unveil the next version of Android on its phones - other manufacturers are likely to be less diligent, so we shouldn't expect the same level of communication.

The update will be offered over the air or through a PC connection - but we'd say it's probably best to wait a few months before feverishly smacking the 'Check for updates' option on your phone.